What began as a passion project to expand the boundaries of user-generated content has devolved into a tale of alleged corporate greed, betrayal, and corruption.

FiveM's rise and fall has just been laid bare for the entire Grand Theft Auto community to see in a shocking new report, straight out of the team's very own website.

FiveM's statement details how the entire project started with noble intentions. Founded by a developer known as NTAuthority (NTA), the open-source project aimed to give players the freedom to create and explore beyond the limitations set by Rockstar Games. As Grand Theft Auto 5's popularity soared, so did FiveM's.

This success didn't go unnoticed by Rockstar and its parent company Take-Two Interactive.

Perhaps viewing FiveM as a potential threat, the report accused the companies of launching an aggressive campaign. The first blow came when Rockstar banned NTA and other key FiveM developers, accusing them of facilitating piracy – a claim that the report suggests was unfounded.

Then, in a move that sounds more like a mission in Grand Theft Auto Online than a gaming dispute, private investigators allegedly confronted NTA at his home, intensified by a lawsuit that drained NTA's finances and took a severe emotional toll.

As the legal battles raged on, the internal structure of FiveM began to crumble. NTA, the visionary behind the project, was forced out, leaving a power vacuum later filled by individuals with questionable motives. The report alleges that this leadership change marked a turning point, with corruption and mismanagement becoming rampant.

Perhaps the most startling revelation is the claim of corporate espionage. The report suggests that Rockstar insiders infiltrated FiveM's new leadership, manipulating the project from within.

Despite these challenges, FiveM managed to achieve significant success. However, this success came at a cost – the platform's original vision and the community-first philosophy that had made it so popular were gradually eroded.

The controversy reached new heights with the recent leak of GTA V's source code in December 2023. Initially thought to be the work of hackers, the report alleges that this came from within, perpetrated by employees themselves. The report also sheds light on the human cost of this conflict. The whole ordeal has left NTA and other original FiveM developers, financially and emotionally scarred.

Looking ahead, the future of FiveM and similar modding projects remains uncertain. Although Rockstar has given their stamp of approval to certain mods, including its acquisiton of Cfx.re two years ago and the recent reports of the company's Fortnite -like approach for Grand Theft Auto 6 , the shutdowns of the Liberty City Preservation Project and GTA Vice City: Next-Gen Edition suggest that Take-Two remains just as protective of its intellectual property as ever.

With that said, while the report does paint Rockstar in somewhat of a bad light, the team does make it clear that their issue lies with certain individuals not with Rockstar itself, even going as far as to defend GTA's long-time developers, saying: "Everyone we spoke to would like to explicitly say that they have no hard feelings against R*, and still consider themselves fans. They speak positively about R*, and don’t consider FiveM or the “Creator Platform” to be anything at all like it," and later on encouraging people to buy GTA 6.